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1. iPad: This summer in addition to XBox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 is going to be available on iPad!

2. Planechase: Not only is Wizards of the Coast coming out with four new Planechase decks on June 1 (which introduce the new Phenomenon card type), but you'll be able to play Planechase multiplayer games in Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013!

3. Optional Manual Tapping of Lands: Although Duels of the Planeswalkers is mostly for people who are new to Magic, it's a lot of fun for people who have been playing Magic long enough to know what's what. So for Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013, you can turn on an option to let you choose exactly which lands to tap!

4. New Decks; New Challenges: Naturally, a new Duels of the Planeswalkers means new decks to battle with and new puzzles to solve.

5. Meet the New Boss: The final battle in Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 is someone you might recognize. Say hello to Magic’s ultimate evil mastermind, dragon Planeswalker Nicol Bolas!

Also, Demyx, one thing I've noticed ( and you probably know this too, but this will hopefully help others ) is that when you win a card it is automatically added to your deck, so the deck size will get bigger and bigger, thus your probabilities for cards you want to draw gets worse and worse.

Also, Demyx, one thing I've noticed ( and you probably know this too, but this will hopefully help others ) is that when you win a card it is automatically added to your deck, so the deck size will get bigger and bigger, thus your probabilities for cards you want to draw gets worse and worse.

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That is correct, though I've only unlocked five cards so I didn't think it would be affecting the probabilities that much.

I probably should get more into the habit of tweaking it, though I still don't like this particular encounter and I'll still be waiting for the exact right combo of cards

Here is the full set of decks, including unlocks, straight from Wizards. Count it - 1 multi-color deck, and it's only 2 colors.

While that is silly, they might be planning more multicolor decks in expansions. How'd 2012 fare in that respect?

I'm actually quite glad to hear that. My favorite form of MTG is single color theme decks. I'm obviously not a hardcore player, so I prefer to keep it somewhat simple. I thought they went a bit overboard in 2012 with all the multi-colored decks, as well as artifact decks, and those uber-powered decks.

There's nothing wrong with single-color decks, but the point is that it renders the #1 billed feature, manual mana tapping, completely moot. Players have been asking for manual mana tapping since the first DotP game, Wizards finally implements it, and now there's only 1 deck which can actually make use of it. >_<

Here is the full set of decks, including unlocks, straight from Wizards. Count it - 1 multi-color deck, and it's only 2 colors.

While that is silly, they might be planning more multicolor decks in expansions. How'd 2012 fare in that respect?

I'm actually quite glad to hear that. My favorite form of MTG is single color theme decks. I'm obviously not a hardcore player, so I prefer to keep it somewhat simple. I thought they went a bit overboard in 2012 with all the multi-colored decks, as well as artifact decks, and those uber-powered decks.

There's nothing wrong with single-color decks, but the point is that it renders the #1 billed feature, manual mana tapping, completely moot. Players have been asking for manual mana tapping since the first DotP game, Wizards finally implements it, and now there's only 1 deck which can actually make use of it. >_<

Well at least it's done. I'm sure the upcoming expansions will have more multi-colored decks, and at least now we know any future versions of DOTP will have manual mana-tapping. This does raise a complaint I have though, that I think they should let us play with decks from previous versions ('10, '12) in the '13 version.

Well at least it's done. I'm sure the upcoming expansions will have more multi-colored decks, and at least now we know any future versions of DOTP will have manual mana-tapping. This does raise a complaint I have though, that I think they should let us play with decks from previous versions ('10, '12) in the '13 version.

I would pay money for this. I really liked the white angel DLC deck from 2012.

Spent a few hours playing the game last night. In my mind the game has already paid for itself.

* I like the idea of the challenge rounds although I wasn't too thrilled with the cloudpost deck. Seems like you really need to have the right counter to the right challenge - which is fine don't get me wrong, especially if that was the goal - but I was really hoping I could tackle the challenges with whichever deck I was working on at the time.

* I dislike that the games are farm-able i.e. repeating a game or challenge indefinitely and getting a card every time. I unlocked four cards this way with the red deck (thanks to Red Tim) playing against the first challenge until it bored me to tears. The obvious answer is "well just don't do it", but the fact that the option - the temptation - is there kinda cheapens the experience and "leveling up" aspect of the game.

* I like the AI on the hardest difficulty, making some really smart decisions, although I can tell it's really easy to get the AI to do what you want it to do in certain situations. Also I'm pretty sure their decks are rigged sometimes. Like the goblin deck dropping a turn four foil Clickslither every. single. damn. time.

* I love the concepts of some of the decks. So far I've tried and enjoyed the soldier deck, the lifegain deck, and the drake deck, but didn't find myself enjoying the phoenix deck as much, and i hated the zombie deck for being clumsily slow.

Quote LeapingGnome:
"I really dislike that you cannot control the amount of land in your deck."

You know, that didn't bother me nearly as much as I thought it would and I'm not entirely sure why. I suspect it has something to do with the deckbuilding interface in general. Seems so clunky for PC and distracts from the land issue.

Is it just me, or is the AI still pretty dumb when it comes to properly using pumpable creatures? I've routinely seen it attack with a pumpable creature and get through to damage me, not pump it to the max, and then end the turn without casting anything else, so it's not like it was saving the mana for something.

It's not quite as bad as in 2012, where it didn't seem to take the pumping ability into account at all when trying to decide (for example) whether to attack or not given the attacking creature's power vs. the toughness of potential blockers, but it's still pretty silly.

Is it just me, or is the AI still pretty dumb when it comes to properly using pumpable creatures? I've routinely seen it attack with a pumpable creature and get through to damage me, not pump it to the max, and then end the turn without casting anything else, so it's not like it was saving the mana for something.

It's not quite as bad as in 2012, where it didn't seem to take the pumping ability into account at all when trying to decide (for example) whether to attack or not given the attacking creature's power vs. the toughness of potential blockers, but it's still pretty silly.

Ah, so it's okay not to have preordered, you just don't have any options to start with.

Correct, and many folks don't consider those unlocks to be a perk. Some of us enjoy the unlocking process.

thoughts on the game itself:

Cragmyre & I played Planechase last night, as well as normal FFA mode, and I must gripe a bit. Planechase seems somewhat fun, but incredibly random. Multiplayer Planechase is flawed because here's what happens: Everyone is on a countdown turn timer so you don't have much time to read the (often long) Planechase card text, much less to consider the changes and strategy it brings. The turn timers are very annoying in mp anyway, but especially so in Planechase.

Add in a couple of A.I. and you have something like this happen: A.I. player A has no creatures on the table, and it rolls the PC die, it changes the plane and a new card comes up - the game doesn't even allow others to read it, and suddenly cards and things are flying around the table and there's whooshing sounds and flashing lights and presto, A.I. player A now suddenly has 5 creatures out. If you try to pick up the Plane card to read it, the game engine snatches it back down again. Player A rolls the PC die again and the plane changes again, and another new card comes in and so you never get to read the card that caused all the activity before, and that gave player A his 5 creatures. To my knowledge there's no way to go back and read previous plane cards. So you're left uttering "what the hell just happened here?"

In DOTP 2010, they had a 'teacher' mode, that allowed two people to play mp with no timers. Inexplicably, this mode was removed in 2012, and is still missing in 2013. Timers are forced, and there's no way to control how long they last. This results in us trying to voice chat, and discussing the game, new cards, etc, and then almost every time one of us has to say "uh, your timer is running out" -- "oh, crap, ok. i better hurry". There's no reason to have this in non ranked games. This is not representative of real life MTG and it should be OPTIONAL in DOTP.

I'm not real impressed with this version, so far. In prior years, the decks were just fun to play. These aren't. They're just bullsh*t deck after bullsh*t deck -- if the player pulls the right combo, it's an almost-certain win, and it seems like all the decks have these combos now, often quite a number of them. I've been playing the black/white deck, and even PLAYING it (and winning with it, a lot), I think Exalted is a lousy mechanic, and that the deck sucks. But there don't really seem to be any better options.

I think the word I'm looking for is 'twinkish'. It's like all the decks are built by twinks, instead of having interesting themes. In prior years, they felt elegant to me, graceful. I particularly liked last year's White deck, or the Green/Black Elf deck from the year prior. (I REALLY liked that one, that was SO much fun.)

But this year, it seems like the thing I'm saying the most while playing is "oh, bullsh*t." Even when it's my play! Everything develops so fast, and it's so tense. It's just not much fun. I can't relax at all, like I could in 2012 or 2011.

"I've been playing Rebel Galaxy for the past few days. It has made me appreciate every other game in the genre more." -- Flintheart Glomgold

I'm not real impressed with this version, so far. In prior years, the decks were just fun to play. These aren't. They're just bullsh*t deck after bullsh*t deck -- if the player pulls the right combo, it's an almost-certain win, and it seems like all the decks have these combos now, often quite a number of them. I've been playing the black/white deck, and even PLAYING it (and winning with it, a lot), I think Exalted is a lousy mechanic, and that the deck sucks. But there don't really seem to be any better options.

I think the word I'm looking for is 'twinkish'. It's like all the decks are built by twinks, instead of having interesting themes. In prior years, they felt elegant to me, graceful. I particularly liked last year's White deck, or the Green/Black Elf deck from the year prior. (I REALLY liked that one, that was SO much fun.)

But this year, it seems like the thing I'm saying the most while playing is "oh, bullsh*t." Even when it's my play! Everything develops so fast, and it's so tense. It's just not much fun. I can't relax at all, like I could in 2012 or 2011.

I really like the Exalted keyword, it led to one of my favorite decks I've built to date. That said, what was fun was figuring out a way to make the whole thing work, and since I haven't played the black/white deck in this game yet I can't say if it's the same.

Um, kind of the same theme. I think the official deck might actually be stronger than your version, even though it uses far, far fewer rare cards.

Mine is not a deck built for 1v1 settings, it's meant to lock down 3+ opposing players, and it does so amazingly well. It's also not strictly an Exalted deck, it was a deck I came up with solely so I could make use of the 2 Stoic Angel cards I have.

Do we have a general MTG thread? I searched and found threads for all the DotP games, MTG Online, and some of the other spinoffs (Tactics), but no thread to just generally discuss the core MTG TCG. It seems we have a lot of players here, and I enjoy discussing deck ideas and getting feedback on new ones I'm building, so is there already an appropriate place for that?

Do we have a general MTG thread? I searched and found threads for all the DotP games, MTG Online, and some of the other spinoffs (Tactics), but no thread to just generally discuss the core MTG TCG. It seems we have a lot of players here, and I enjoy discussing deck ideas and getting feedback on new ones I'm building, so is there already an appropriate place for that?

I thought there was one around here once upon a time... if not, I'd like to see one!

Cragmyre wrote:

I like the decks, though that could be because I'm a Johnny player and love me some combos :)

Thanks for linking that article, it's been a while since I read it! I think I'm a mix of Diversity Timmy and Combo Johnny.
My group plays every week, almost never 1 on 1, and some house rules. Mainly we have upped the hand size to 9, and we draw 2 and lay up to 2 lands per turn. We did this to help speed up our usually 5-7 player games. Some cards are broken by doing this, so we stay away from them.

Torq - I can certainly see myself whipping it out for a quick solo on commutes though.Steam
Aries#1590

Wow, with 5-7 players I usually go for something like Emperor or 2-headed Dragon.

One that also worked, though I don't recall the name, is you can only attack the players on either side of you, but you can cast instants/sorceries anywhere in the game. That one was a ton of fun, people trying to delay certain players dying because they didn't want to face the person it would open them up to (in this case, me, because I had mad Vampires killing people in single turns).

I'll have another search for a general thread, 'cause I'm in the middle of designing some new decks and feedback would be nice.

Mmm back in the day we called it 'attack range' and 'spell range', which were usually 1 and 2 players in either direction, respectively. Spell range 2 also meant spells like Wrath of God only worked on up to five players which was especially neat in terms of game dynamics.

Yeah, if we have 5 players we play mostly Allies - To win, your opponents must be dead. Your allies are the people directly to your left and right. I think it's called "Star Format". Sometimes free-for-all, or 3 vs. 2.
4 players we may play free-for-all, Two Headed Dragon (shared life), or teams of two (separate lives)
6 players would be either 2 teams of 3, 3 teams of 2, or Emperor. Rarely free-for-all with this many.
7 players would usually be 3 teams, with the team of three having the most noobish fella on it. Sometimes if someone's feeling confident with a particular deck we've done 2 vs 2 vs 2 vs 1.

Torq - I can certainly see myself whipping it out for a quick solo on commutes though.Steam
Aries#1590